Friday, November 11, 2016

Erik Storey's no-holds-barred thrill ride of a novel, Nothing Short of Dying, was November 2nd's Book of the Day and I'm so excited to now be able to bring you an interview with the author. Read on!

Steph Post: One of the first things I noticed when reading Nothing Short of Dying is its incredible pace. By the second page, literally, the plot has been kicked into motion when Clyde Barr receives a desperate phone call from his sister. This breakneck speed never lets up and while there are a few strategically placed moments for the reader to breathe, overall your novel is one high-octane ride. When writing, did this sort of speed come naturally or is this the result of a lot of revision and editing to craft such a pace?

Erik Storey: This is a definite result of rewriting and rewriting and rewriting. I think there were at least fifty different versions of the manuscript, if you count the small revisions and micro-edits. I like a fast pace in a book, but it’s almost impossible to do when I write the first draft. I’m usually feeling my way through, trying to nail down who the characters are and what they want. I’m telling myself the story, as they say. The second draft is where I add layers of detail, and work on the dialog. The rest of the drafts are for cutting and paring it down to make a smooth, fast, and hopefully effortless read.

SP: When you do have those more calm moments of exposition, you devote space in the novel to developing your settings, which, in a way, are such an extension of your characters. How essential was the backdrop of Colorado, particularly its wilderness, to the core of your story?

ES: I think that setting is just as important as any of the characters, and if done well, can become almost a character itself. The idea for the book actually started with the setting, when I was driving down a two-track in the middle of nowhere in Colorado, and I started wondering why we didn’t have more books written about the rugged area I was travelling through.

Wilderness is definitely core to the story, and to Clyde. It’s what makes him different from other main characters, both because he’s spent so much time out in the boonies, but also because he excels at it and has the skills to survive almost anywhere. His love of the outdoors comes directly from me. I grew up spending every summer either in the Flattops Wilderness or at my family’s ranch that my great-grandfather homesteaded. Neither of those spots had electricity nor running water, and that’s where I learned to ride a horse before I learned to ride a bike. Later I became a guide and took people on trips into the mountains that I loved and got to share that with people. Hopefully my descriptions in the book convey some of that love.

SP: Family, and threats to a character’s family, are often a jumping off point for thrillers, but I really felt the struggle and connection between Clyde and his sister, Jen. Perhaps this is because of the harrowing childhood they shared, and the way you depicted it, but it seemed that the family element in Nothing Short of Dying went beyond the cliché. Was the story of Clyde and Jen always at the heart of the novel? Or did it develop more to support the high-action of the plot?

ES: The family drama developed separately, and it was indeed to support the action. My editor and I knew that it needed to be there to make Clyde more of a human, and less of a brute, and to explain how and why he did the things he did. So I wrote all of the backstory separately, then put it in the book in small doses scattered through the book.

As a side note, it’s important to mention that all of the family violence and trouble came straight from the imagination. I had a wonderful childhood, so I had to research and be creative to come up with the hell that Clyde and his sister went through.

SP: Lee Child blurbed Nothing Short of Dying and many readers have made the comparison between Nothing Short of Dying and the Jack Reacher novels. Before you began your novel, were you a fan of the types of thrillers that you are now compared to?

ES: I am a huge fan, yes. I’ve read all of Lee Child’s books, for two reasons. One, because they are fun and fantastic reads. Two, because I wanted my characters to be different from his, so I read to make sure Clyde is not Jack Reacher. There are similarities, yes, but I think there are just as many differences.

I wasn’t always a fan of thrillers, however. When I was younger, I read mostly Westerns, Science Fiction, and Fantasy. It wasn’t until after college that I started reading authors like Child, and Crais, and C.J. Box.

SP: Finally, will we be seeing more of Clyde Barr?

ES: Yes we will. A Promise To Kill will be out sometime next year. In that book, we find Clyde wandering through a Native American reservation that has been taken over by outlaw bikers, and there is talk of terror activities in the area. Hopefully, if people like the books, I will be able to write more adventures for Clyde.

Thanks so much to Erik Storey for stopping by. Be sure to pick up your copy of Nothing Short of Dying today and add A Promise To Kill to your TBR list. Happy Reading!

Steph Post: So many of
the stories featured in Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone feature
monsters, ghosts and other mythical creatures. Where did your interest in the “otherworldly”
come from?

Sequoia Nagamatsu: I’ve always been fascinated with mythology and
folklore, probably starting early on with watching the 1963 Jason and the
Argonauts on TNT and flipping through a used copy of Bulfinch’s Mythology that
I bought at a garage sale. It was the prospect of explaining the world through
the fantastic and strange that drew me. In a similar way, the comics I read as
a kid helped me consider (even though I couldn’t articulate it at the time) how
the unreal and otherworldly can be ways of illuminating aspects of identity and
social issues. I identified with the misfits and the outcasts because I was one
myself (bookish, goth for a time, generally pretty weird). Super heroes (and
villains) and monsters and creatures of magic live on the periphery of society
because of their extraordinary abilities. And it is because of this unique vantage
point that they can dig into the architecture of society and the human
condition. As a writer, I use magic and monsters to understand humanity, and I
think the fantastic is needed more than ever as a lens to view a world that is
increasingly complex and chaotic.

SP: As much as
magic and other mythical and mystical elements are present in your collection,
many of the stories also include references to science- particularly as
concerns how you structured your stories. I’m thinking, for example, of the
opening story, “The Return to Monsterland.” In your mind, how do science and
magic go together and work together?

SN: I think magic
and science are essentially the same thing, but just several steps of
understanding removed from each other. With magic, there’s the belief and
expectation that something fantastic will happen. It simply is because that is the
way the world works. No questions. With science, we take that faith and put it
under a microscope and try to unlock the secrets of wonder. We ask questions.
Of course, life doesn’t like neat compartmentalizations, and I think a fully
realized life embraces the mingling of all aspects of ourselves and worldviews.
We can look at love as a chemical reaction, but we generally prefer to think of
it in grander terms.

In "Return to Monsterland," our narrator is
trying to understand how his wife lived and what she saw in Godzilla and the
other Kaiju. At its heart, his quest is to find the connections between his
field notes and scientific work and the realm of immeasurable beauty and awe.

SP: In, perhaps,
sharp contrast to the scientific elements in your stories, there is also
clearly a poetic voice bubbling beneath the surface. Are you a poet? Do you
have a background in poetry?

SN: I wouldn’t describe myself as a poet at present,
but I started my first forays into creative writing with poetry and definitely
still appreciate and strive for writing that not only reads true to a character
or situation, but sounds true to my ears.

SP: As I
expressed in my review of Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone for Small PressBook Review, much of the delight in your collection comes from its weirdness. I
mean, the Placenta Bloody Mary? The advice section for the dead? I’m wondering
if you ever felt that you pushed the weirdness too far. Were you ever concerned
that your readers wouldn’t “get” what was behind your stories?

SN: I don’t think
that was ever really a concern that I had, but that might say more about me as
a person and a writer than anything. Fundamentally, these stories are all about
very recognizable experiences and emotions, so I felt that was more than enough
of an anchor to provide a foothold for readers. The humanity and emotional
resonance is there if you allow yourself to enter the strange.

SP: Finally, many
of the stories in your collection, and the collection as a whole really, could
be described as experimental. Both in content and in structure. Is there a
place, or space, for experimental fiction or poetry in the mainstream literary
arena?

SN: I
don’t think the mainstream literary arena (if we’re thinking really
traditionally here) really provides a lot space for innovative literature, but
we’ve made some strides in recent years. For one thing, what the mainstream
literary arena comprises is changing. Certain small presses are no longer all
that small and major literary awards are tapping writers and publishers based
in the Midwest and west coast. And a not insignificant number of writers who
found their voice and niche online like Blake Butler and Amelia Gray could
certainly be called experimental and have found a wider audience. So, I’m
hopeful that challenging and innovative writing is finding more readers these
days, but I’m not sure if the number of readers who truly appreciate the
innovative has changed all that much. But one arena where we might close the
gap as far as reaching other readers is in the world of games and VR. It is
here where gamers are often engaging with experimental narratives without even
realizing it.

Friday, October 28, 2016

Bouchercon 2016 in New Orleans was a blast and for so many reasons. One of the highlights of the event for me was participating in my very first Noir at the Bar, hosted by Eric Beetner. Rumrunners, Beetner's latest novel, had been on my radar for some time and so, of course, after meeting Beetner in person, I just had to snatch it up. And after reading this interview, I think you will too....

Steph Post: Let me just
start out by saying that Rumrunners is a hell of a fun book. Crazy families,
fast cars, a classic crime- it’s just an all-around good time. Do you think
that Rumrunners exemplifies your “style” as a writer?

Eric Beetner: I
do think it is indicative of what I do best, which is center a story on the “bad
guys” and yet make you like them. I have no interest in writing about hero cops
or the ultimate assassin or a government agent backed by the moral high ground.
I like the little guys making their way in the world slightly to the left of
the law. But I think to draw readers in, they can’t be all bad. We all have a
little outlaw in us so I strive to bring that out in my characters and make
them relatable even when they engage in actions the reader would (hopefully)
never do.

I’ve
gotten great feedback on the character of Lars from The Devil Doesn’t Want Me
and the sequels to that, and he’s a professional killer. People love the guy,
though, and that’s when I know I did my job right.

I’ve
also been called a funny writer, though I rarely do it consciously. I like a
light touch in the absurdity of situations rather than trying to write funny
lines, which I am no good at. But I think a dose of humor now and then really
helps with the pace of a book. A reader needs a little relief after the
intensity of some of the violence.

SP: As an author
who also writes about the weaving web of crime families, I obviously related
to, and appreciated, the relationship between the McGraws and the Stanleys.
Tucker McGraw is the one family member spanning both groups who has done his
best to avoid the criminal lifestyle. Even if most of your readers haven’t
grown up with a kingpin parent, do you think they can relate to Tucker’s plight
throughout the novel?

EB: We
all struggle to build our own identity, don’t we? Tucker is someone who has to
rebel kind of in the opposite direction. His rebellion is to fly the straight
and narrow. He doesn’t commit crimes and that makes him an outcast within
his family. So in that sense I think he is relatable.

Whether
it’s that day you move out of the house or the day you stand up to your parents
and tell them you don’t want to go into the family business, being an adult is
making that choice. I think many of us never quite recover from the
consequences of that tipping point. It can effect the rest of your life if it
alienates you from your family or if it is a decision you end up regretting.

Tucker’s
slow awakening to who he is really meant to be is intended to be a happy story,
even if he breaks bad in a way. He’s sort of going through a very late in life
coming of age.

SP: Calvin
McGraw, Tucker’s grandfather, is my favorite character in Rumrunners. He’s
an eighty-year-old badass and the novel’s opening scene with Calvin versus a
cocky hipster in a donut shop is one of my favorite first chapters. Was Calvin
based on someone you know or met in real life?

EB: Calvin
has definitely been the breakout character from Rumrunners, and I’m glad. I
think older characters are underserved in stories. I wish I could say he was
based on someone I know, but he isn’t really. I used elements of my grandfather
in other novels of mine, specifically that he was a pro boxer in the 1930s and
I wrote about a boxer living in that era for two novels. But Calvin is maybe a
bit of fantasy on my part of what I hope I can be like at his age. Not the
criminal stuff, but the attitude. The guy just doesn’t give a crap anymore.
That’s admirable on the one hand and it also makes him a formidable foe on the
other, even to people a quarter his age.

And
his loyalty is unsurpassed. That gets back to being relatable. Calvin in an
unrepentant outlaw. He’s lived his whole life on that side of the fence. But he’s
fiercely loyal to his family, and that shows the stand up guy beneath the
outlaw exterior. I think most people respect a trait like loyalty more than
they do to strict lawfulness.

SP:Rumrunners takes place in Iowa and the Midwestern setting
is referenced throughout the novel, especially as the Stanley family is one of
territory. Yet I could have very easily see the Stanleys and McGraws in a
showdown with the Cannons (characters from my novel Lightwood, set in
north Florida). Is Rumrunners uniquely Midwestern?

EB: I
also think the Midwest is an underserved locale for fiction. I’ve seen the book
called Southern noir or country noir and I think people tend to picture more of
a deep south when they hear about characters like this, but the Midwest can be
just as backwoods, just as dangerous, just as redneck as the South. Some of the
worst meth problems are in the Midwest. Hell, our worst heroin problems today
are way up in New England, and that doesn’t fit what most people picture in
their prep school/ivy league ideas of what New England can be like. So I think
the more different areas of the country are represented with the truth of it,
the better.

That
said, I hope it’s not an unflattering portrait of Iowa. I was born there, but
only lived there briefly. I still have family there and spent a lot of time
there visiting while I grew up moving to different places on both coasts. Iowa
has always had an outsized impression on me, mostly because I think the vast
majority of Americans don't know what it’s really like. I know when I lived in
Connecticut and wore my Iowa Hawkeyes hat around, the kids who’d never been out
of Fairfield County thought I must have been born on a farm and slept with pigs
in my bed. They were that clueless about Iowa beyond cornfields and barnyards.
But I have a deep affection for Iowa. Some of my favorite memories are there. I’ve
written about it a few times and although I always write about some crime
taking place there, I think the setting itself comes off well.

But
could the saga of Rumrunners have been set elsewhere? Sure. You have my
permission to have the McGraws drive through the background in one of your
Florida novels. They wouldn’t be entirely out of place, I don’t think.

SP: I had the
privilege and pleasure of being part of your Noir at the Bar at Bouchercon this
past September. How did you get started with this event?

EB: I
knew of the events being held in St. Louis, unaware that it started in
Philadelphia. The Philly events weren’t happening any more, but Jedidiah Ayres
and Scott Phillips had a regular thing going in St. Louis that I’d heard great
things about. When a place called the Mystery Bookstore closed down here
inLos Angeles, we lost the hub and
central meeting place for crime writers in town. I wanted that back so I called
up Jed and Scott to ask if I could do a Noir at the Bar in LA. I reached out to
a few LA writers to see if there would be interest and everyone was very
excited about it.

That
was already 5 years ago and since Jed and Scott gave me their blessing, I think
other writers in other cities saw it as a franchise opportunity so now there
are regular events all across the country and even in the UK. Everyone does it
independently, each event is a little different, but the core concept is the
same and that’s to give writers a place to come and get in front of an audience,
and a place for writers and readers to interact in the flesh. It’s been a real
boon to the indie crime community, the younger writers especially. It’s a right
of passage now to read at a Noir at the Bar. We’ve hosted national bestsellers
and guests from other countries right on down to unpublished authors. We’ve
seen several people do their first ever public reading at Noir at the Bar LA
and several have gone on to now be published authors. It’s immensely gratifying
and as much work as it is for no money and no gain, really, outside the
satisfaction of doing it and the fun times at the event, I can’t see stopping
any time soon.

SP: I’d ask you
what’s coming up next for you, but I already know- Leadfoot, the prequel
to Rumrunners. What prompted you to go back to 1971 and explore the
roots of the McGraws?

EB: Well,
as you said, Calvin was the star of the show once Rumrunners came out. I had a
loose plan for a trilogy starting with the action right after Rumrunners, but
the publisher suggested maybe a prequel and I thought it was a great idea. So I
went back to when Calvin was in his prime and pushed him front and center. I
also gave Webb, who vanishes right at the start of Rumrunners, his moment in
the sun. So the story is about Calvin getting caught up in a big turf war
between the Stanley family and rival gang from Nebraska, all while grooming
Webb for the job and sending him out on his first assignment which does not go
as planned.

Hopefully
people find it as high octane and supercharged as the first book.

SP: And finally,
to spread the love (and because you have killer taste), who are some authors
you’d recommend to readers interested in the crime and thriller genres?

EB: Not
to blow smoke but I’m so glad I got to read your books this year. A Tree Born Crooked was great andLightwood just went in my bag for me to start at lunch
tomorrow.

It’s
actually been a great year for dark female writers, which I’ve had a hard time
finding in the past. Neliza Drew, Marietta Miles, Sarah Chen. I love having
more answers now for when people come asking for female crime writers who don’t
do cozies.

So now, including Rumrunners and Leadfoot, you have even more books to check out! So many thank to Eric Beetner for stopping by and be sure to pick up a copy of Rumrunners. Don't forget- Leadfoot hits the shelves on Nov. 1st and you'll want to throw that in your bag as well. Happy Reading!

Steph Post: Your recently published novel The Adventures of Jesus Christ, Boy Detective is, to say the least, unique. The premise alone- Jesus Christ trapped in the body of Timmy, a twelve-year-old detective- tells readers that your book is going off into uncharted territory. How strange do you personally believe your novel to be?

Jesse Bradley: I would say no weirder than any other boy detective novel where said boy detective has to solve grizzly, soul boggling murders.

SP: In many ways, your novel reads like a serial story collection. Do you have a background in short stories?

JB: It’s funny, I focused on poetry from about 1996-2010. I wrote a smattering of fiction here and there in during that period, but I wrote mostly poetry, especially when I was competing in poetry slams. While I was doing interviews for PANK, I stumbled onto flash fiction and started writing that along with poetry. I discovered that a lot of the narrative elements in poems written for slam transfer well for writing flash fiction. In 2011, I was challenged by HOUSEFIRE to write a 10,000 word novella in six weeks and I used my experience in writing flash fiction to write Bodies Made of Smoke. It was a tough challenge but damn, it was fun. When I stumbled onto the idea of writing these Jesus Christ, Boy Detective stories, I used the events of Bodies Made of Smoke as a major plot point in The Hand of Fate section of JCBD. I started with writing a novel but then when it became intimidating or I got bored, I wrote self-contained JCBD mysteries. Originally, the book was going to only contain the mysteries until Mark Givens at Pelekinesis wanted me to add some background to them. I mentioned I had a long novella/short novel that provides a ton of background (The Hand of Fate). Once I showed it to him, we added it. The stories have been published elsewhere as well as only the first chapter of The Hand of Fate. Everything came together through the editing process. I tell people that I accidently wrote a novel, which I feel like is the case.

SP: You’ve been published by quite a few independent presses and have published chapbooks for other authors as well through There Will Be Words. How important are the indie presses in today’s publishing climate?

JB: Indie presses take chances on work that the major labels won’t. It’s how I discovered writers like Sean H. Doyle, Scott McClanahan, Roxane Gay, John Jodzio, xTx, and Jane Liddle, just to name a few. There’s far more daring, challenging work in indie lit that I wish the major labels would indulge in.

SP: In addition to writing, you run the previously mentioned There Will Be Words group in Orlando, Florida. Can you tell me more about the group and how you got started with it?

JB: I ran a poetry slam in Orlando from 2001-2011. Around late 2010, I was burnt out on poetry slams. I was writing shorter poems that were getting published in literary journals. I got divorced. I wanted a fresh start. I went to my first AWP conference in 2011 and met a ton of writers that I interviewed for PANK. While I was there, I went to my first Literary Death Match and some amazing off-site readings. On my way back to Orlando, I told a friend I was travelling with that I wanted to start a prose reading series in Orlando. There was this amazing space in Orlando at the time called Urban Rethink, which used to be a bookstore called Urban Think. Burrow Press put out its first anthology and I met the publishers (Ryan Rivas and Jana Waring) at the release party. I pitched the idea of doing a reading series at Urban Rethink called There Will Be Words, where chapbooks would be sold with the readers work in it and they were down. The final slam was in April 2011 and There Will Be Words began in May 2011. I’ve been running it now for almost six years and it has been a consistently rewarding experience. Our literary scene has grown exponentially and I’m so proud to be part of that growth.

SP: And finally, what’s next? What can readers expect from you on the horizon?

Friday, October 21, 2016

I mean, will you just look at this cover?! And the story certainly doesn't disappoint- fast, funny and thrilling on a classic level.

Nothing Short of Dying

by Erik Storey

An atmospheric thrill ride with one of the fastest paces of any novel I've read. The story just keeps on coming for you. ﻿

Be Cool

by Ben Tanzer

Ben Tanzer pretty much speaks for himself, but I'll just add that his "sorta" memoir is my favorite work of his to date. Raw, honest, relatable and addictive- Be Cool was a one day, impossible-to-put-down read.

Red Right Hand

by Chris Holm

And one more thriller for the road. Red Right Hand, with its Hit Man-FBI-Secret Council triangle is not to be missed. And you can read my interview with Chris Holm here.

Monday, October 10, 2016

One of the books I've been talking up a storm about over the past month, in case you hadn't noticed, is Chris Holm's recently released novel Red Right Hand. A classic thriller, Red Right Hand brings together the FBI, a secret Council with a terrorist plot, and a hit man anti-hero with both a mission and a vendetta. It's a wild ride and one which I truly enjoyed. I'm excited and honored, therefore, to bring you an interview with Chris Holm. Read on!

Steph Post: I
was initially drawn to your book by its striking cover and its title, which I
hoped was a reference to Nick Cave’s song “Red Right Hand.” I was, of course,
thrilled to see that you included an excerpt from the song in the epigraph for
the novel. Did Cave’s song, or its imagery or themes, in any way influence or
guide you as you began to write Red Right
Hand?

Chris Holm: Very much so. In The
Killing Kind, I introduced the Council, which is essentially a criminal UN
comprising representatives from every major organized crime outfit in the
country, and the Council’s right-hand man. In Red Right Hand, that man—whose name is Sal Lombino (the birth name
of the late, great Ed McBain)—and his machinations on the Council’s behalf take
center stage. I envisioned him as a chaos agent, an emissary of evil, the prime
mover of a vast criminal conspiracy. Or, as Cave puts it:

You’re one microscopic
cog

In his catastrophic plan

Designed and directed by

His red right hand

The phrase “red right hand” didn’t originate with
Cave, though. He borrowed it from Milton, who was a huge influence on my
Collector series. While Cave’s “Red Right Hand” has a sinister cast, Milton
used the term to refer to the wrath of God:

What if the breath that
kindl’d those grim fires

Awak’d should blow them
into sevenfold rage

And plunge us in the
flames? or from above

Should intermitted
vengeance arm again

His red right hand to
plague us?

The interplay between the two quotes became the central
tension of the book. If Lombino was the Devil’s Red Right Hand, what did that
make my series character, Michael Hendricks—a reluctant avenging angel?

SP: I
was about halfway through Red Right Hand
when I realized that The Killing Kind,
for which you just recently won the Anthony Award, preceded this work. Red Right Hand is the second installment
in a trilogy series, but I found that it worked very well as a stand-alone
novel. Would you recommend that readers begin with The Killing Kind to really understand the story and the character
of Michael Hendricks?

CH: I’m glad it worked well as a standalone, because I tried
hard to ensure that it would. That said, there’s no question Red Right Hand spoils a thing or two
from The Killing Kind, so it’s
probably best to start at the beginning.

It’s funny; a number of reviews have mentioned I’m writing
a trilogy, but I’ve always intended the Hendricks books to be an open-ended
series. Could be all this trilogy talk stems from the fact that my last series
was a trilogy—but between you, me, and the internet, I thought that one was
open-ended too, until my old publisher told me they weren’t interested in
publishing another one.

SP: Michael
Hendricks, the main character of Red
Right Hand, is clearly an anti-hero. He’s essentially a hit man who goes
after hit men, and while he is certainly not evil, he’s not exactly walking
around with a heart of gold either. Yet it is this dark edge that makes him so
attractive to readers. Why do you think readers like an anti-hero? And are
there even such things as “real” heroes?

CH: I believe that there are truly evil people in the world,
and truly good, but the majority of us exist in the vast gray middle in between.
It seems to me that part of the appeal of anti-heroes is that they allow us to
safely explore our own dark impulses. Anti-heroes are a dare. A gut-check. A
what-if.

I also think their unpredictability makes them
interesting. Heroes, by definition, always act heroically—and you can count on
mustache-twirling villains to be villainous. Anti-heroes, on the other hand,
are harder to pin down. We read (or watch) to find out what they’ll do next.

SP: One
of Red Right Hand’s many strengths is
its fast, uncompromising pace. From a craft perspective, how did you maintain
the intensity and pace without sacrificing any of the story?

CH: Honestly? Copious editing. My first drafts are pretty
bloated and uneven. I usually go through six or seven drafts before a book is
done. Red Right Hand only took three,
but damn if they weren’t brutal. Every scene streamlined. Every character
deepened. Every action beat punched up. I kinda see it like those digital FX
reels you see online. The first draft is the wireframe version. Every
subsequent draft adds texture and context. Hopefully, by the time it hits the
screen, it doesn’t look half-baked anymore.

SP: As
I previously mentioned, Red Right Hand follows The Killing Kind. Did you write The Killing Kind knowing that the story would eventually become a
series? And once you realized that you would be carrying Michael Hendricks’
story for the breadth of more than one novel, did you outline the series ahead of
time?

CH: Is it weird to call your shot? Yeah, I always intended
The Killing Kind to be the first in a
series. That said, I’m incapable of outlining. I’ve got a rough idea of a few
big beats in my head, but that’s about it. When it comes to finding out what
happens next, I’m six months ahead of my readers at most.

SP: And
just to spread the love, as I always like to do, who would you say is currently
writing at the top of the crime-fiction genre? Who or what novels would you
recommend for fans of your work who are hungry for more?

CH: Lou Berney’s TheLong and Faraway Gone is as beautiful a crime novel as you’ll ever read.
Megan Abbott’s You Will Know Me
continues her already impressive literary hot streak. Stuart Neville’s Those We Left Behind was absolutely
devastating, so I can’t wait to dig into his new one. Ditto Michael Koryta’s Last Words. And I’m in the middle of a
gritty, lyrical Florida crime novel by Steph Post called Lightwood that’ll be out early next year.

Okay, I'm not going to pretend that didn't make me smile... But back to Chris Holm. Be sure to check out both Red Right Hand and The Killing Kind, as well as Holm's Collector series (which have amazing covers, by the way) And always, read, review and repeat. Cheers!﻿